Affliction Update

After agonizing here, here, and here about color choices for the Color Affection shawl, I finally realized that world peace was not going to depend on my yarn choices, and I happily cast on with Socks that Rock in Winter Solstice and Jasper, and a skein of Tess Sock.

Well. This is a lot of garter stitch. And a lot of stitches. Still, it's pretty obsessive. Just as I got tired of increasing the plain gray, I got to stripe in the purple. Just as I got tired of the two stripes, I got to add a third, and whoo! short row as well.




But, you know, because I am me, I have to complicate things. It's Mad May, a celebration of Madelinetosh yarn, on Ravelry, and I am entering the Color Affection Plus KAL contest. My current Affliction isn't eligible, so I am starting a Stripe Study by the same designer in Madelinetosh Sock in Candlewick and Tern.


God help me, this is a lot of garter stitch.

Startitis and Spring Cleaning.

I had been doing really well at finishing things and clearing up my piles of UFOs. It started in January when I whipped out this pair of socks for Martha as part of our Epiphany Stash Gift Exchange at the store.The pattern is Burning Rings of Fire by Kirsten Kapur, a free Ravelry download.

Then I realized that I had a bunch of projects that were at least 75% completed, and it would take little effort to finish them.

I hauled out my never ending Damson by Ysolda Teague in my cursed yarn and finished it. Once you get going on the lace, it doesn't take that long at all.

I finished my Honey Badger Socks, a Socks that Rawk KAL (and another free pattern) from last fall. The yarn is BMFA Socks that Rock in a Mediumweight Rare Gem. I don't have a picture of the completed pair because I gave them to my mother.

And I got out my Owlet, thinking I better finish it before the baby gets too big for it. I consider it done, even though I still need to put buttons on for the owl eyes.

But after that I petered out and then came down with Startitis. Two years ago, I did not cast on during the month of April. I toyed with doing the same this year, but with Startitis raging all around me, I could not promise the same this year. But I will try to control myself and work on older projects.

It's April 1, and I have FOURTEEN unfinished projects. Let's see how I do.

 

Color Affliction

I know I can't be the only one feeling obsessive about the Color Affection -- or as I call it, Color Affliction -- pattern. I look at the finished projects almost every day on Ravelry, thinking about all the possible color combinations.

Because this is the New Austerity, I cannot buy new yarn for the shawl. I shopped the stash came up with this:



From left to right, Tess Supersock, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in Winter Solstice, and Miss Babs Windsor Sock in Field Mouse.

Thoughts? I'm wondering if the gray and the brown are too close together. I will twist them together and see. Lisa has suggested an orange in place of the brown, which would pop more, but also "de-neutralize" the finished piece.

See why I call this Color Affliction?

Car Knitting, and Yes, I am Still Here

So yeah, it's been awhile. Travel, illness, sleep deprivation, and a mobile baby all add up to blog neglect, but we are still here, still knitting.

And I still haven't bought any yarn in 2012.

Speaking of travel, I needed something mindless to work on during a recent drive to New York City. I also discovered that I lack a plain, non-lacy, gray neck-thing in my wardrobe. I dug out my not-small stash of gray fingering weight yarn and chose a skein of Colorful Yarn Merino Sock that I'd purchased on a trip to Philadelphia years ago...let's just say Henry was still The Toddler and he was in a stroller when I went to this store.

I cast on for Nimbus, a part of this amazingly beautiful, simple collection of gray knits. I love gray. Have I mentioned that before? The pattern, once set up, is easy to memorize and perfect for the car. Off I went!

And off we went! I have one very enthusiastic City Mouse:

And someone who is undecided, but leaning toward Unimpressed Country Mouse:

So the Rumors are True

Hello. It's been thirteen days since I last purchased yarn.

My husband has "challenged" me to knit from stash in 2012. It's not like I don't have a lot of stash. It's not like my knitting time has decreased thanks to a certain adorable baby.

I am still in the Rockin' Sock Club as well as the Pro-Verbial Shawl Club, so small amounts of yarn will trickle in. I also have a layaway bag at the store that I last put yarn into on New Year's Eve, so as that gets paid off, that will come home with me as well.

But yeah, knitting from stash. Here we go.

Picking myself back up

I'm not part of the Ravelry Olympics, but I cast on for these Spring Forward socks on Friday night as I watched the opening ceremonies of the 2008 games. The yarn is the July selection of the Rockin' Sock Club -- these are really not my colors, but I'm enjoying the yarn and making peace with the blue spiral pooling, which seems is what the yarn wants to do. It's a fast, fast knit and the lace is easy to memorize and read as you go.

As for my online silence, well, all I can say is that it was so much worse after all. We've been battling moths of all kinds for weeks, and I've lost a lot of finished objects and some stash. The upside is that it's really, really made me reconsider my yarn buying habits (yes, again) and I realized that I need to enjoy what I have. Yet I wouldn't wish this on my worst knitting nemesis, if I had a knitting nemesis, that is. Wish us luck in getting rid of this problem for good. I'm already on a first name basis with half the employees of Terminex already!

Mindless Garter Stitch....

...can be really beautiful and soothing. See?


(Lucy the Cat would like to point out that she is very beautiful and soothing as well.)

The first is the bodice of Juliet, knit in this gorgeous red colorway of Malabrigo I picked up at the Pittsburgh Knitting and Crochet Festival. The second is the beginning of my Knitting Rite of Passage, my first Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket, knit in Brooks Farm Solo, also purchased at the Knitting and Crochet Festival. (Please note that not only am I knitting from the stash, I am knitting with Precious Things from the stash.)

Both projects are really beautiful, but both have been a wee tad bit stressful in different ways. The Juliet is knit top down, and the beauty of that method is that you can try on as you go. So I tried on.....and realized that the bust measurement given by most designers must assume that the arms are toned. Um, mine are not, and so the underarms of the bodice are way too tight. At this point, I have to decide if I just rip back a few rows and continue with the increases. Or I can frog the whole thing and knit the large, but then possibly not be able to make the sweater as long as I'd like it. (And it turns out that the downside of knitting with Precious Things from the stash is that you can't just run down to the store and get more yarn if you run out.)

As for my Baby Surprise, well, I was surprised that getting started is a lot more complicated than it looks. I got confused by the third row. After a frantic email exchange and a phone call from a Concerned Michelle, I figured it out (the text of one email from me was, and I quote: "*$_)_)&$^#*#!!!!!") and am now rolling along with the help of a cheatsheet from Ravelry. Does it still count as a successful rite of passage if you use a cheatsheet?

I leave you with a delightful "perk" of my new job. I was the first to open the box of Noro Kureyon Sock when it arrived, and I bought the first one. Isn't it pretty? I'm Magic Looping for the first time, so wish me luck.

[Malabrigo] March Madness

For the record, I completed six (very small) projects and cast on for two more for Malabrigo March.

The Toddler says "I love Malabrigo!" Okay, really, he says "Yar!" and then throws it on the floor. He also uses yarn to practice counting ("eh, niiiiine, elelen," and NO, I did not buy eleven skeins of Malabrigo) and color identification ("BOO!").

Here, The Toddler is snuggling up to my latest Malabrigo score, the beautiful Brilliante colorway that I bought today at Natural Stitches "egg sale." Lisa "No, I Cannot Even Get to My Needles" Be and I were so excited about this, it wasn't even funny. We were supposed to leave my house at 10:45, but at 10:20, I looked out of my front door to see Lisa sitting there. Okay, I thought, we'll go a little early. Maybe there'll be a line and we can act like Mr. Smithers knocking Lisa Simpson down to be the first to get to Malibu Stacey. And if they let anyone in early, it would be Lisa.

But no, they didn't let us in early, and of course, I didn't expect them to. We went in and had the store to ourselves for just a few minutes, and then slowly but surely, the knitters flowed in. It was very pleasant with just the right amount of help. I scored a 25% discount in my egg and got the yarn for a MinnowKnits sweater for The Toddler, some sock yarn (duh), and some Malabrigo for Talia for myself.

What was it I said about not buying so much yarn this year?

This is not a yarn diet, but....

I have been thinking an awful lot about my stash since Ravelry

• Forced me/gave me a place to organize and catalog what I have.
• Enabled me to buy more by showing me new yarns, new projects, and lovely links and discounts to new retailers.
• Hosted discussions about materialism and stash, stash-busting, and yarn diets.

If you’ve read any knit blogs at all, I’m sure you’ve seen this by now: The World’s Biggest Stash. When the pictures were posted on Ravelry, I thought a person could write a sociological study on the reactions knitters had to it. Some thought it was the greatest thing ever and wished she could aspire to such a stash. Some thought the Stash Owner was a mentally ill hoarder on the level of that poor woman on Oprah who hoarded 10,000 square feet of stuff into a 3000 square foot house. And some used the picture to spin off threads about how “excessive” stash was yet another product of the materialism that runs rampant in this country. All very interesting stuff that made me examine how I felt about my own stash.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the very idea that someone else gets to pronounce judgment on how much yarn someone has is disconcerting. If I feel comfortable with my stash, it’s no one else’s business but mine and the person I share my home and my finances with. I actually think that woman's stash is awesome, a true artist's studio. And yet as we get to the time of year where we make all kinds of good-intentioned resolutions, I am going to closely examine my stash and where my yarn money goes. I don’t feel comfortable with how many posts in this blog have received the label of “yarn shopping” this year. This is not a diet. This is not exactly a year of stash-busting either. But for now, here are the rules.

I may purchase yarn if

• I have a gift card (which I do, both for Natural Stitches and Jimmy Beans Wool, go me).
• It is needed for a gift and I have looked in my stash first.
• It is something I am totally and completely sure I will not be able to get at a later date and I absolutely love it (keeping in mind that I am a member of the 2008 Rockin Sock Club and the Chewy Spaghetti Blue Plate Special and if that doesn’t satisfy my jonesing for “new and exclusive” I don’t know what will).
• It is a special occasion, like the Pittsburgh Knitting Festival.
  
• It is Malabrigo (sorry, I can’t stay away from this crack. I will try, though).

I will try to stash-bust in the following ways

• I will haul out the stash and put it where I can see and access it, not stuffed in one cabinet, thus preventing me from throwing up my hands and saying “I have no suitable hat yarn” and running off to the store. I will also be honest about the projects I plan to complete and put all the yarn I have for them into my Ravelry stash.
• I will knit from stash throughout the year, interspersing large projects with small, and putting projects away into a “Long Term Planning Box” ala The Yarn Harlot, thus preventing a yarn binge in October and November and subsequent frantic knitting for Christmas 2008 (because, dude, I still haven’t finished Christmas 2007).
• I will embark on some charity knitting such as the Dulaan Project.

Okay, so I’m posting this on my blog to keep myself honest. Let’s see how long I can go.

PS: I want a new knitting bag, one that does not scream "Here is my cheap knitting bag from Joann's!" (okay, I actually like my cheap Joann's bag, but I want something I can use in all grownup, professional situations and still have some knitting on hand). Jordana Paige? Namaste? Everything is getting mixed reviews on Ravelry and I don't know what to do.